SWARAJ-DAM 2 LAST

Osmani said his country received a lot of funds over the past 15 years from international donors but Indias cooperation was "very effective" and hoped other countries will follow Indias model.

He lauded India for supporting development activities in Afghanistan and constructing the dam at a time when "some countries are supporting terrorism" in his country.

"Surely, the history and the people Afghanistan will remember these two types of actions. This time terrorists and their supporters were disappointed. We proved that friendship succeeded and terrorists failed. The completion of the dam shows terrorists cannot stop our development," he said.

Special Secretary in Water Resources Ministry Amarjit Singh, WAPCOS CMD R K Gupta and other government officials, Sufi saints from Afghanistan were also in attendance at the event.

Modi and Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani had on June 4 jointly inaugurated the Rs 1775-crore dam.

The multipurpose project, constructed on Chist-e-Sharif river in Heart province of Afghanistan, is expected to irrigate 75,000 hectares of land and generate 42 mega watt power, besides ensuring water supply and other benefits to local people.

Funded by Indian government, the project work was completed in over 10 years by 1,500 Indian and Afghan engineers and other professionals. PTI ENM GVS PAL GVS

This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.

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